Dozens of legislators from seven of the 12 countries negotiating the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement took the unprecedented step today of calling for the full TPP text to be released publicly before it is signed. The open letter reads simply:

We, the undersigned legislators from countries involved in the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, call on the Parties to the negotiation to publish the draft text of the Agreement before any final agreement is signed with sufficient time to enable effective legislative scrutiny and public debate

Jane Kelsey, a prominent New Zealand TPP critic and professor at the University of Auckland, said of the joint letter: “The trade ministers from the TPP parties have backed themselves into a corner with their extreme secrecy. That position is now untenable.”

In October 2012, I was with a CODEPINK delegation in Pakistan meeting families impacted by US drone strikes. Kareem Khan, a journalist from the tribal area of Waziristan, told us the heartbreaking story of a drone strike that killed his son and brother. Since then, Khan has been seeking justice through the Pakistani courts and organizing other drone strike victims. On February 10, he planned to fly to Europe for meetings with German, Dutch and British parliamentarians to discuss the negative impact drones are having on Pakistan. But days before his trip, in the early hours of the morning on February 5, he was kidnapped from his home in Rawalpindi by 15-20 men in police uniform and plain clothes. He has not been seen since.

Over the past six months, President Obama and Attorney General Holder have made a series of moves indicating that they are serious about reducing mass incarceration and fixing our broken criminal justice system. And it is worth pointing out that they have received almost universal praise from advocates, elected officials and the media, while there has been hardly any voices in opposition.

…but only because of the huge pressure from We The People. The public is now fully aware of the insane size of the prison population in the USA and why all those people are imprisoned, as well as how wrong, unjust and anti-human that war-on-drugs really is, especially regarding the cabal’s position on Marijuana. Winning is fun.

At a press conference this afternoon, State Senator Josh Miller (D-Cranston) and Representative Edith H. Ajello (D-Providence) will announce and discuss their proposed legislation that would make Rhode Island the third state in the country to legalize and regulate the possession, cultivation, and retail sale of cannabis for adults.

Attorneys for three foreign nationals being held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba are claiming a partial victory following a federal appeals court ruling announced Tuesday morning in Washington, DC.

Earlier complaints made by the detainees in question regarding the conditions of their confinement at Gitmo should have been heard in district court, an appellate panel agreed in a 2-1 vote, opening the door for those inmates’ attorneys to re-challenge their clients’ ongoing detainment and the force-feeding practices they’ve been subjected to endure while protesting their lengthy incarceration by refusing to eat unless and until they are released.

Today, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) along with 17 other members of Congress, sent a bipartisan letter to President Obama asking him to direct Attorney General Eric Holder to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, as is permitted by 21 U.S.C. § 811.

“You said that you don’t believe marijuana is any more dangerous than alcohol: a fully legalized substance, and believe it to be less dangerous ‘in terms of its impact on the individual consumer,’” the letter reads. “This is true. Marijuana, however, remains listed in the federal Controlled Substances Act at Schedule I, the strictest classification, along with heroin and LSD. This is a higher listing than cocaine and methamphetamine, Schedule II substances that you gave as examples of harder drugs. This makes no sense.”